Toshiba has announced that it's bringing the Excite brand of tablets to the UK, with the launch of three new Android devices to get your fingers on. The most affordable device entry-level is the £249 Toshiba Excite Pure.

The design of the Excite Pure is close to that of the higher-spec Excite Pro and Excite Write, also announced today for the UK.

The silver plastic back of the Excite Pure doesn't quite scream premium like the Sony Xperia Tablet Z or the Nexus 10, but priced as it is, that can be forgiven.

It's nice enough to hold, although at 10.2mm thick, it feels a little hefty. It measures 260.7 x 178.9mm and weighs 600g, which is typical for a tablet with a 10.1-inch display.

That display offers a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, which is again typical at this price point, and far out-classed by the superior Excite tablets announced alongside the Pure.

Sitting at the core is an Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, although there's space for a microSD card slot so expending the internal storage is easy.

From the time we spent playing with the new tablet it seemed to run smooth enough and it's great to see Android 4.2 in place, as it feels much more mature on a tablet than Android 4.1 does.

There's also an HDMI port, so you can output to a TV for sharing on the larger screen, and a pair of cameras to let you snap shots, with 3 megapixels on the rear and 1.2 megapixels on the front.

Our time with the tablet was brief, so we can't draw too many conclusions until we get the tablet in for a full review. The Excite Pure isn't going to set the world alight, but competitively priced, it seems to hit the right notes.

What is exciting is the neat Bluetooth Toshiba Keyboard Cover. This accessory attaches to your tablet, and folds out to form a neat stand for the tablet. We don't have confirmation of the pricing of the Bluetooth keyboard, but if you want to get productive with your tablet, then it certainly looks good.

The Toshiba Excite Pure will launch exclusively with Currys and PC World for £249.